Shafaqna Sports: A desperate Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has written to the dispute resolution committee (DRC) of the ICC requesting it to overturn the governing body’s decision to hold the Men’s T20 World Cup games in India, but its appeal won’t be heard as it is outside the remit of the sub-committee.
Even as the ICC has kept Scotland on stand-by and will take a call on Bangladesh’s replacement by Saturday, the BCB under Aminul Islam Bulbul, after being completely cornered, decided to use its last resort — approach the DRC headed by Englishman Michael Beloff. “Yes, the BCB has approached the DRC as it wants to exhaust all its options. If the DRC rules against the BCB, the only body that can be approached is the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) in Switzerland,” a BCB source said on condition of anonymity.
Bangladesh’s interim government and its sports ministry adviser and anti-India hardliner Asif Nazrul had announced that the team would not travel to India due to “security reasons” after senior pacer Mustafizur Rahaman was removed from the Kolkata Knight Riders squad on the BCCI’s diktat.
If one checks the ICC’s Constitution and the Terms of Reference for the DRC, it will become clear that it does not have any right to hear an appeal against a decision passed by the Board of Directors of the global body.
While the ICC Board of Directors emphatically voted 14-2 in favour of keeping Bangladesh’s matches in India after an independent security assessment, which cited security threat being “low to moderate”, Nazrul maintained that it was not the BCB but the government which was mandated to take the decision.
As per Clause 1.3 of the Terms of Reference of the DRC: “The committee shall not operate as an appeal body against decisions of the ICC or any decision-making body established under the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association or under any rules or regulations of the ICC…”
An ICC source said: “Bangladesh can approach the DRC but if one looks at the rules, the case can’t even heard as the committee doesn’t have the remit to hear an appeal which is against the decision made by the Board of Directors.”
It is understood that ICC chairman Jay Shah, who was in Namibia for the U19 World Cup, is in Dubai now and a formal decision on Bangladesh’s replacement will be announced by Saturday.
